A Fort Worth-based company that provides license plate-recognition software and other tech-based solutions used by public safety and commercial clients has been bought by Motorola Solutions in a $445 million cash and stock deal.

VAAS International Holdings will become part of Chicago-based Motorola Solutions, which sells software and devices for mission-critical communications for government agencies, law enforcement and enterprises. The company spun off from mobile phone-focused Motorola in 2011.

Motorola Solutions has 16,000 employees, with about 2,000 in its software group. With the acquisition, it will nearly double its North Texas workforce. It has about 100 employees in Plano. VAAS has nearly 100 in Fort Worth.

Andrew Sinclair, who leads Motorola Solutions' software division, said the company wanted to buy VAAS because of its valuable data, advanced machine learning and video analytics and similar mission. He said it'll add to the company's public safety portfolio.

"A data platform is only as valuable as the data in it," he said. "We see this technology over time saving people's lives because the time to respond is critical and efficiency is critical."

Since VAAS was founded in 2014 by Todd Hodnett and Shawn Smith, it has grown to about 350 employees. It is made up of two wholly owned subsidiaries, Digital Recognition Network, which is based in Fort Worth, and Vigilant Solutions, which is based in the San Francisco Bay area.

The holding company's name is an abbreviated way to describe its business: video analysis as a service company that specializes in data and image analytics for vehicle location.

Its software uses cameras and machine learning to capture images of license plates and cross-check them with databases to pinpoint vehicle locations. For law enforcement, the software can be combined with government and police records to help apprehend dangerous suspects and find missing persons.

On the commercial side, auto recovery vehicles with cameras scan license plates as they drive around. Their data can be used for a wide range of uses, such as tracking down cars recalled for faulty air bags or other parts that could be dangerous or deadly, so that the driver is notified.

VAAS has worked with more then 1,500 law enforcement customers, including the Las Vegas Police Department, New Jersey State Police and the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. It also counts insurance companies and auto recovery companies among its customers.

The headline has been corrected to say the sale is worth $445 million.